In the year 2017, what is the point of the US having as large

Employment.

The US military employs three people to do the job of one in many roles. There are many, perhaps a third of total strength, that are completely surplus to requirements but are kept on for a wide array of reasons.

Are these people unemployable elsewhere? No. It's just simpler employing them there and has benefits of its own to those who decide where money goes. The US military could achieve exactly the same level of power and reach as it exercises at the moment if it had its numbers halved.

>>33552658
W E L F A R E
Q U E E N S

>>33552658
yeah if it was pre 1950 troop mtoe

>>33552621
MacArthur

>>33552621
Is an island nation desiring strong Marine forces

>>33552621

Marines are the spearhead, the Army is the shaft.

You send in the Marines to take ground, and the Army to hold it.

They serve two different roles.

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I've got no god damned idea.

>>33552707
The shaft of my penis you mean.

>>33552707
lol spearhead yeah for islands. What are Airborne units with Pathfinders?

>>33552707
When has this actually happened since WW2?

>>33552767
>it didn't even happen then

>>33552770
wtf i hate the USMC now

>>33552758

Mass parachute assaults are as outdated as battleships.

We will never again see a mass parachute assault in actual combat (and not just a PR jump against a shitty middle eastern country)

>>33552621
>what is the point of the US having as large an Army and as large an Marine Corps at the same time?

The USMC is actually quite a bit smaller than the US Army.

Army:

>460,000 Active personnel (2017)
>530,000 Reserve and National Guard personnel (2017)
>990,000 total (2017)[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army

Marines:

>182,000 active (as of 2016)[2]
>38,500 reserve (as of 2016)[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Marine_Corps

The (active) US military is not really that large.

>>33552658
Proofs?

>>33552767
>>33552770
>>33552780
Read Generation Kill

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>>33552770
Honestly, the Marine Corps should go back to its Pirate/Raider days and stick to punitive actions, Ship Guard, Embassy Duty and amphibious assaults, that way it really would be the few and the proud.

Even then, the Army is just as capable of doing Amphibious assaults, if I remember correctly they did just as many, if not more, amphib ops as the Marine Corps did

To be fair with the Marines though, the Corps did send advisers to the Army when ever they were planning an amphib op

>>33552621
Marine corps isn't as big as the Army

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>>33552621
In reality, the marine corps are relying on scraps (around 4% of annual DoD expenditure). They're and expendable assets, although not quite like penal regiments of the old days.

Since they rely on scraps to get by they had little logistical footprint (strategically speaking), so it doesn't matter if they're exist or not. They are important as means of employment because you could had 3 marine for the cost of one equivalent army personnel, despite the marine had longer bootcamps

Marines are cheap to train, they die faster and has less tangible effect on vet benefits. In a sense, they're the strelets of old russian empire or the irish during English-scottish war on independence

>>33552767
> what is the battle of Fallujah

>>33553029
And there's no reason Army soldiers could not have accomplished that

>>33553504
I have little interest in fixing all the dumb here, so I will just type "F-35B" and call it done.

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>>33553945

Except for the fact that Army soldiers are mostly Uphams.

90% of the cringe helmet cam videos are shot by hooahs

>>33553966
Yeah and did having F-35B adds any meaningful value to that 4 percent? No

In fact with that F-35B, USMC had less aircraft that it operates

>>33552667

I thought the point of welfare is that you don't have to work a job to get it

>>33553937
no, they fucked it up so the army had to bust them out (although to be fair, the Blackwater guys really fucked it all up)

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>>33552621
>inb4 chair force
I prefer the Air Force so I don't really care about why we need both branches.

>>33552621
The main branches of the American military like to have organic elements so they can be largely self-sufficient.

Some countries, the airforce controls every plane/helo, Army is every guy with a rifle and pack, Navy is in charge of all the ships.

Marine Corps lends the Navy a land-based capability. Also it keeps a bunch of poor and uneducated guys employed.

>>33554829
Your aviation is an embarrassment even in comparison to the Corps. I won't even include the Navy since it'd just be unfair.

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>>33554912
I'm not in the Air Force. I could care less about what branch does more.

>>33552621
Sweet christ we have this fucking thread every fucking day.
The National Security Act of 1947 defines the roles for each branch of the armed forces.
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/laws/nsact1947.pdf

>>33555049

Why are the Marines allowed to go outside their role?

>>33555053
Because it also says (and i paraphrase here)
"and anything else as the president directs"

>>33552621
I hate the way shitty rolls look on uniforms. One of the only things I would ever sperg over.

>>33554892
Former Marine here, I'll have you know I was smart enough to enquirer about an asvab waiver.

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mfw nobody in this thread has any idea that the Marines exist solely to circumvent the Posse Comitatus Act

>>33555394

How the fuck do you figure that?

There is no reason for the Army to exist, in fact it's the opposite of what the founding fathers wanted. The reason the Army exists is to shovel money into the MIC.

The military just needs to scrap the Marine Corps and the Air Force. Make it just the Army, Army Air Corps, and the Navy.

>>33552667
I'd make more money on welfare and with better benefits.

>>33555394
>While the Act does not explicitly mention the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps, the Department of the Navy has prescribed regulations that are generally construed to give the Act force with respect to those services as well.

>>33552712

Hell yeah, Brown Water Navy

>>33552621

to have something to spend money on so the economy maintains the appearance of functionality

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Marine Corp keeps the hormone-addled tards out of the Army.

>>33552621
Politics. It's bad optics, especially after all the propaganda the USMC has put out there about themselves.

Someone needs to waste those tax payer's money boi

Your about to find out faggot

>>33552621

They're welfare programs, not actual military forces.

That's why they're not set up to fight actual militaries.

>>33556884
BETA-MAX

>>33552658
Any government insititute wants to have more power by expending it's reach, employing more ppl, requiring more budgets.

>>33554892

Army has plenty of helicopters. Jesus Christ you're retarded. Also there are smart guys in every facet of the military, no matter the job. There are smart cooks, marines, skittles although the percentage is smaller than other jobs that require higher ASVAB scores. Stop acting like you know shit.

>>33552621
It takes a lot to cover all of the oil reserves of the world.

Only really useless branch is the Air Force. They worked fine as an Army corps during WWII. The expanded mission made sense during the cold war, but honestly the only thing keeping satellites, planes, and othersuch from Army personnel is a law from congress.

At least the USMC doubles up most of their support staff as Navy pog-ish guys.

>>33561172
>They worked fine as an Army corps during WWII.

They were practically their own branch already, there's a reason they split

>>33559249
Reread his post.

he explicitly says the various branches have their own organic assets in ways most nations militaries dont.

ie., the US Army has helicopters that belong solely to the US Army. In some countries, helicopters are an air force asset, not army.

>>33552667
>t. too scared to enlist while still living at home with mommy and daddy

>>33552667

This post is somewhat ironic now, isn't it?

>>33552742
are you calling marines dickheads then?

>>33563550
Yes

>>33563312
Are you ready to die for israel in syria?

>>33552781

>he says, forgetting that maneuver warfare is the name of the game and that airborne assaults are the best way to do mass troop insertions

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Task_Force_Viking

Task Force Viking included an airborne assault conducted by the 173rd airborne BCT.

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>>33554975
>could care less
so you do care

>>33566522
I would make a joke about how you support them through your taxes anyways,
but that would imply that you actually have a job.

>>33554975
>Could care less
Opinions like yours are a diamond dozen

>>33567705
I've never seen this level of ownage on /k/ before

>>33567705
Rekt